Friday, August 12, 2005

addendum

A few things I failed to cover below.

My salivary glands continue to do something weird at least one or two times a day. Occasional salty saliva, minor mumps, tingly feelings up in the cheeks or (ugh) under the tongue. It's not bad, really, just weird. I'm using Biotene mouthwash and toothpaste and I think it's helping.

My eyes/tear ducts are the latest casualty in the RAI side effects derby. Today, for example, they are very dry and red-rimmed. I look like I've been crying for a week, and they feel horrible even with eye drops. From time to time tears just overflow my eyes (one or both, it varies) and flow down my cheeks. My tear ducts apparently get blocked. So far it's not a chronic thing, but it is very annoying when it does happen.

One thing I'm happy with: brushing with hydrogen peroxide 1x/day is keeping my teeth from looking like I'm a 3-pack-a-day smoker. They're bad enough as it is, they don't need to stain every time I take a sip of red wine or have coffee. I'm totally cracking up because Listerine has a new "tooth whitening" mouth rinse -- major ingredient? Hydrogen peroxide, of course. It's a lot cheaper to just buy that. The Prevident flouride treatment/toothpaste is working well, too, although I should probably do that more often.

Last but certainly not least, I think I'm finally getting a handle on my tender tailbone situation. My pelvic musculature was all torqued because of my hip rotation, and that caused my coccyx to be pulled out of alignment. But I think I've finally got it under control. The crucial piece was re-training my abs to work when I'm sitting and standing. I think I lost that post-hysterectomy, and having lax abs was contributing to all that instability. So engaging the abs (basically, keeping my gut sucked in), and keeping in a pelvic tuck whenever I'm standing have led to major improvements in the tailbone situation. For the past few days, it actually does not hurt when I wake up. I'm hopeful that as I continue to just pay attention that this condition will resolve entirely.